Machines for corrugating paper and like materials



17, C. T. HALL MACHINES FOR CORRUGATING PAPER AND LIKE MATERIALS Filed Nov. 30, 1953 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 //W/v roe My 1. M

April 17, 1956 c. T. HALL 2,742,079

' MACHINES FOR CORRUGATING PAPER AND LIKE MATERIALS Filed Nov. 50, 1953 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 lNVE/VTOR M 1. M q, Maw, Mu W ,qrrumls s C. T. HALL A ril 17, 1956 MACHINES FOR CORRUGATING PAPER AND LIKE MATERIALS Filed Nov. 50, 1953 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 c. 'r. HALL 2,742,079

MACHINES FOR CORRUGATING PAPER AND LIKE MATERIALS A ril 17, 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Nov. 50, 1953 C. T. HALL A ril 17, 1956 MACHINES FOR CORRUGATING PAPER AND LIKE MATERIALS Filed NOV. 50, 1953 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 I/YVENT'OR m ame-l NM 7: wafim, 804, 9444a 1 wJI Gu ney:

MACHINES. FOR CORRUGATING PAPER AND LIKE MATERIALS Charles Thomas Hall, Dep'tfoi-d, London, England, as-

signor to 'Molins MachineeCompany Limited, London, England, aBritish company Application November-.30, 1953, Serial No. :sasnrs Claims priority, application Great Britain DecembergS, 1952 3 Claims. (Cl. "154-60) This invention concerns. improvements in machines for corrugatingpaper and like materials and more particularly the corrugations is a matter of great importance as webs I ofpaper are'stuck to one or both sides of the corrugated Web and for this purpose adhesive is applied to the tips ,of the corrugations and unless these are of the same height within fairly close limits ill-shaped or improperly stuck board will result.

At present the toothed rollers not only make the corrugations but provide the principal means for feeding the web which is often .verywide and rather heavy. In

order that the web can be fedin this manner it is necessary that a fair number of .teeth engage the web, the

'feedingteeth often extending over two orthree inches of the roller periphery. Atthe line joining the centres of a pair of rollers a corrugation is properly formed and of correct size, taking a piece of paper whose length is equal to the extent or a tooth surface. Preceding 'this' position there area number of teeth intermes'hing .and 1 between each pair there is a partly formed corrugation. At theposition where intermeshingsfirst takes place the corrugation will naturally be very shallow and onward-s from that position it will become deeper and deeper up to the place where it is of correct size. It will thus be apparent that as more material is required at the position of said line than at the position of first intermeshing, the

7 paper already partly corrugated at the second mentioned position has to be dragged through several intervening engaged teeth to supply sufficient material at the. first mentioned-position to provide a full-sized corrugation. It is true that in existing machines the web feed is partly assisted. This is done by lapping the web around a considerable arc of a roller which drives the web by' friction.

roller is supplying the intervening web will become taut and the angle of lap, or the pressure thereof, according to the design of the friction roller arrangement, will in- .crease and the friction roller will feed the web faster.

Conversely if the web is-overfeedingthe intervening web "If the toothed rollers call for more web than the friction m tch h e teeth of eaghstqller are in mutual engage- 'and showing details of a roller spindlemounting.

, 2,742,079 atented Apr- 17, 7195.6

2 ment, said teeth functioning solely ,as forming teeth and having no part in the web fe'eding operation.

Since in practice the feeding rate of a web is difficult to control exactly and underfeeding or overfeeding may occur the invention further comprises a jockey device between the web feeder and the corrugating rollers said device being coupled tothe rollers and arranged to-move them slightly apart if the normal web-feed decreases and remove them into closer engagement if 'the web feed increases; Thus minor irregularities in the feeding rate are compensated for by a trifling alteration in "the depth of corrugation'made. In practice this alteration does not exceed more than 0.010" which slight difference has no noticeable effect on the quality of the finished product, but the total feeding tolerance gained by this expedient is quite considerable as for the six tootlnflanks engaged it amounts to .060". For-this purpose the jockeydevice may comprise a freely running roller carried on arms pivoted to the machine frame and providing hearings in which one of the rollers is rotatable. The .jockeyro'ller may be supported in the arms for a restricted degree of universal or floating movement in order tomaintain substantially uniform tension across a wide web and correct anytendency towards lateral drift of the web 'due :to stretch, or other factors, which may cause the tension atone side to differ from that of the other.

The invention will be briefly described 'Withreference to the accompanying drawings inwhich." I

Figure l is a side sectional'elevation .of a portion of the machine.

Figure 2 is a view looking in the direction of thclarrow A on Figure-l.

Figure 3-is a section taken entire line .33 ,"Figure 1,

Figure 4 is a section'ta'ken on thelin'e 4- l and showing details of a roller spindle mounting.

Figure 5 is a section taken on the line 5-;-. Q

and showing details of a roller spindle mounting. l

Figure 6 is a fragment of a pair of corrugating rollers showing the tooth shape and tooth engagement.

Figure 7 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the na'achine.

Figure 8 is a plan of the" upper paft ofFigure showing how certain arms are*supported, parts beinggbrokein away and parts at one side he'ing omitted'to'showhi den 7 .half bearings 42. A friction brake lever '43 bears on the spindle under the influence of a weight '44, supplemented by a spring 45. As the reel lessens in diameter, the spring'tension is decreased and with it the total =braki'ng force. The rollers 2 and 3 aredriven at a speed proportional to that of the machine and the web feeding rate is determined by the diameter of the rollers. As will appear later the roller indicated by the generalireferences 3 in Figure l is, in fact, aseries of short rollers. These will be described with reference to Figure 2.

From the feed rollers the web passes over a guide roller 4 and beneath a jockey roller 5 and over guide rollers 6 and 7 and thence between .corr-ugating rollers 8 and 9. As shown in Figure 3, the jockey roll'er5 has a spindle 10 which runs in self-aligning =ball races 11. These are housed in boxes 30 which are carried in levers '12 pivoted :at31 tothe free ends of a -pair of pivoted arms-"lii. The

chine to suit working conditions.

positions of the boxes 30 are adjustable by screws 32,

Figure 1. In this way the jockey roller can be set so that its axis is truly parallel to the axes of the corrugating rollers, 01' as may be needful to ensure correct guiding of the web. The ball races 11 permit a certain swing of the roller spindle axis and the roller will automatically take up a position where the tension at each side of the web is the same. As the arms 13 are pivoted, the running position of roller 5 will be determined by the web. If one side is slack the roller will sink by movement of the arm 13 at that side and thus the jockey roller is self-aligning according to the tension at each side of the web.

The pivoted arms 13 are provided with bearings 33, Figure 4, in which the spindle 15 of the corrugating roller 8 is journalled. The arms 13 of the frame are nearly horizontal as the weight of the frame and its jockey roller constitute the means of applying pressure between corrugating rollers. The pivot axis 16 of the arms 13 is a short distance beyond the axis of said roller, say W and as considered from the jockey roller 5. The arms are of such length that the leverages of jockey roller and corrugating roller about the pivot have about a 70:1 ratio, and heavy corrugating pressures are possible.

Further, if the web feeding rate decreases materially the jockey will rise and lift the roller 8 slightly by movement about the pivot axis 16.

The upper roller 8 may be about 5 /2 in diameter and the lower roller 9 about 3% in diameter, these proportions giving the desired tooth engagement mentioned above with the tooth sizes necessary for corrugations of the usual proportions, see Figure 5. The pivots 16 are mounted in a further frame 17 and this is pivoted to the machine frame 34 at 18. The pivoted frame 17 is drawn by a spring device 19 to bring the teeth of the lower roller 9 into proper engagement with a third corrugated roller 20 of larger diameter. The web 1 passes from the jockey roller over the top of the upper corrugating roller and around its surface until it passes between the two corrugating rollers, see Figure l. A stripper or shroud 21 passes round half of the lower roller 9 to ensure that the corrugated web follows its proper path. Then the web moves into the grooves of the third roller 20 which is also provided with a stripper 22 and then into the grooves of a fourth roller 23 of about the same diameter as the third roller.

While on this roller 23 the crests of the corrugations are supplied with adhesive and a flat web is run into contact with the crests to produce single lap board. Later, adhesive is applied to the other crests of the corrugations and the second fiat web is run into contact with them to produce the final double-lap board. These items are not shown as they are not part of the invention.

It will be understood that in these machines adjustment is necessary between the-various rollers to set the ma- Such an adjustment is shown and described in U. S. Serial No. 340,849 but in that case an adjusting shaft extending across the machine was provided. Such a shaft cannot be used in the present case because of the arms 13 and associated parts so roller adjustment is provided by gear wheels 37 provided with handwhels 38 and suitably coupled to the bearings of roller 20, the roller 23 running on a fixed axis. The arrangement is shown in Figure 7. The bearings of roller 20 are formed in levers such as the lever 46 illustrated. This is pivoted at 47 to the frame and at 48 to a threaded rod 49. A nut 50 surrounds the rod 49 and has formed on it a wormwheel 51 of spherical contour which is engaged by a worm 37, see also Figure 2. The nut bears against a fixed bracket 52. The arrangement is duplicated, one set of the parts mentioned being on each frame as can be gathered from Figure 2. When the handwheels are rotated the nuts 50 are screwed up or down on the rods 49 and the roller 20 swings slightly on the pivots 47. After roller 20 is set to secure the desired spacing between the teeth of 20 and 23 the roller 9 4 is adjusted to roller 20. Then the lowest position of roller 8 is set by adjusting stops 35 and in running the roller 8 will vary its position according to web tension as above described.

A further current practice in the art of corrugating is to wet the web to a considerable extent, this wetting usually being caused by blowing steam on to the web just before it goes into the rollers. While this practice may have advantages for some features of the work (and possibly helps to obtain fair shaped corrugations with the kind of machine at present in use) it naturally makes the paper pulpy, which is not the best condition in which to be subjected to considerable tension by the toothed wheels to make up correct-sized corrugations as explained earlier. Indeed if the drag is severe (i. c. When the web supply is insufficient) the material is actually perforated or drawn into slits or holes. The corrugating rollers are heated and these perform a kind of ironing effect on the wet web and give stiffness to the finished product but as the corrugated web might itself be defective by reason of stretching or perforating taking place under these conditions the quality of the resulting product is likely to fall below the best standards.

Since the design of the pair of corrugating rollers 8 and 9 in the present example is such that they only act as forming rollers it is possible to apply heavy corrugating pressures without harming the paper and the necessity for deliberately wetting the paper is overcome. In the mills where these operations are carried out the webs will always have a considerable moisture content (up to 20% and with a machine according to the invention this degree of wetness is sufiicient to ensure good shaping and setting of the corrugations, the setting being determined by the heated rollers which give in some degree the ironing effect previously referred to.

Roller teeth are basically involute teeth but the tops of the teeth and the bottoms of the grooves are shaped to substantially circular arcs. As these arcs are of considerable size as compared with tooth pitch, the involute form only survives at positions very close to the pitch line. The tooth shape is shown in Figure 6.

The several rollers above mentioned, in addition to their functions as corrugating and guiding rollers also function as driving members for one another, that is, the intermeshing of the teeth provides means whereby all the rollers are driven from the machine, the driving roller of the train being normally the fourth roller 23.

As explained earlier the movement of roller 8 as the jockey rises results in rather shallower corrugations than usual but the corrugated web has eventually to pass between the large rollers 20 and 23. Normally full size teeth are employed on both these rollers and it will be apparent that in such case they would injure or destroy the corrugated web if its corrugations were shallow. To overcome this the crests of the teeth of roller 20 are reduced to such height as to suit the shallowest corrugation made by the rollers 8 and 9. Higher corrugations will merely stand above the tooth crests on roller 20 and the shallow ones will only have their bases nipped between the crests of the teeth on roller 23 and the bases of the grooves on roller 20.

The feeding of the wide webs (e. g. 7 feet wide) in these machines is a diificult matter as the tension tends to occur at the edges and the middle of the web sags and spreads. To assist in overcoming the diificulty and to feed the web in its correct path the feed rollers 2 and 3 are geared together and instead of single cylindrical rollers several wheels or short rollers 3A as shown in Figure 2 are used. These rollers are attached to bosses 3B fixed on a shaft 3D and coupled to the rollers 3A by bonded rubber studs 3C. The feed rollers 2 and 3 are pulled together by a lever 24 pivoted at 25 and operated by screws 26 through bevel gear wheels 27 and 28. The wheels 28 are fixed on a shaft 29 having a handwheel 30 and thus all the feed wheels 3A can be brought into contact with the web by 5 distortion of the rubber studs which will naturally cause the rims to run slightly eccentric to the wheel axis. Further the wheelmounting may be such that wheels at each side of the mid-width of the Web will tend to feed the web outwards. For this purpose the peripheries of these wheels are frusto-conical. The wheels are arranged as two sets, one on either side of the mid-width of the web with the larger diameters of each set nearer the neighbouring side of the web. Because of the flexible mounting of the wheels due to the rubber studs they tend to run drunkenly, and-the rims will therefore always contact with the web on the feed roller 2. Alternatively the sets of wheels at each side of the mid-width can be carried on separate shafts with means for adjusting these shafts so that their axes are at an angle to each other,

that is, they are no longer coaxial.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A corrugating machine comprising a pair of intermeshingcorrugating-rollers of such diameter that approximately three teeth of each roller are in mutual engagement, said teeth serving solely as forming teeth, a web feeder whichfeeds web at substantiallythe correct rate to said eorrugating rollers, a jockey device interposed between the web feeder and the eorrugating rollers, and means coupling said device to said rollers to move the latter slightly apart when the normal web feed'decreases,

and to move them into closer engagement when the web feed increases, said jockey device comprising a freely running roller over which the web passes, and a pivoted support carrying said roller and providing bearings in which one of said corrugating rollers is journaled.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1 and comprisingfloating bearings carried by said pivoted support, said freely running roller being journaled in said last named bearings, whereby said last named roller tends to maintain substantially uniform tension across the Web.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the web feeder comprises a feed roller and several substantially coaxial eooperatig rollers, said cooperatingrollers having rims of frusto-conical form and arranged in two sets, one

at either side of the mid-width of the web, each cooperat- I ing roller being resiliently supported on its shaft, whereby it can rotate in such manner as to accommodate its periphery to that of the feed roller.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

